20-Year-Old Woman Dies By Suicide After Allegedly Being Cyberbullied Over Her TikTok Video
According to the victim's family, she tried to appeal to social media pages to remove her video, but they ignored her request.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 21 May 2020, 05:30 PM
A 20-year-old woman, said to be a victim of cyberbullying, was found dead at her home in Penang on Tuesday, 19 May
According to New Straits Times, she was found hanged in her home in Bukit Tengah.
The victim's brother called her at 9.30pm, but she did not answer. It forced him to break into her room and he found her unresponsive.
She was rushed to a nearby hospital, but was declared dead by the doctors.
It is revealed that the victim, R Thivya Nayagi, died by suicide after a TikTok video of her with a co-worker went viral on Facebook
The video was filmed by Thivya, which featured her with her Nepali colleague. They worked in a 7-Eleven store together.
However, the video was re-shared by several fake Facebook accounts with malicious captions, including one account with 70,000 followers called 'Joker Oruvan'.
The victim's elder sister, R Logeswari, told New Straits Times that her sister had been receiving mean comments on the Internet because Thivya was spotted with a foreign worker in the video.
"The post had been widely shared by netizens who continue to make derogatory remarks, suggesting that she was 'an easy character'," said Logeswari.
"Thivya did not only suffer from cyberbullying but people started to recognise her from the video.
"Although we know the truth of her relationship with the boy in the video, yet she was feeling down over the things being said about her," the sister added.
Social activist David Marshel, who is currently helping the family, said Thivya is believed to have taken her own life after feeling humiliated by netizens' comments, reported Malaysiakini.
Logeswari said her sister's passing shocked the whole family because Thivya had always known to be brave and outspoken
"Now we have lost our sister because someone wants to be famous on social media," she said, adding that they had just lost their mother last year.
Logeswari said Thivya had asked the fake accounts to remove the video, but her request was ignored.
David said the account that instigated the cyberbullying has since been deactivated after Thivya's death became public knowledge.
A police report has been lodged by Thivya's brother and David has helped the family to file a report to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) yesterday, 20 May
"We hope the MCMC will take firm action against this Facebook account, which slandered a complete stranger to the point of causing death," said David, who is also the Malaysian Tamilar Kural president.
"It is also saddening that the Facebook account's administrator refused to entertain the family's explanation and their request to remove the video.
"We hope the MCMC will see this case as a precedent for taking stern action against Facebook accounts that only slander people."
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